LiFang

The portrait is a process of distillation of the essence of the being whose only purpose is to preserve the aura of the individual.

Born in 1968 in Jiangsu, China, LiFang lives and works in Paris. Her figurative work, on the border of abstraction, deals with all the subjects of our daily universe: antonymous crowds in megalopolises, portraits of her entourage, scenes of idleness at the water's edge, current events such as Chinese censorship and migrants.

Her singular technique involves large strokes: the bodies appear as sculpted blocks, embedded in the coloured material. LiFang works similarly on facial features, bodies, and clothes. This unity of treatment and the refusal to individualise the characters transform the subjects into beings who, having no other consistency than that of the paint, reflect the image of our shared solitudes.

Behind their apparent banality, her paintings express universal feelings: loneliness in crowds, and the joy of bodies at rest connected to nature. By revisiting the subjects of classical painting, LiFang invents new codes to propose a contemporary vision of the beauty of the world. Timeless, light and deep, joyful and dramatic, her work is an open invitation. It offers the viewer the freedom to realise their own imagination while feeling part of the community of the living.

This first monograph invites the reader to explore all aspects of her work. LiFang is represented by several galleries, including Galerie Boulakia, Red Zone Arts, and SpArts Paris. The Cernushi Museum acquired three of her works in 2013.